The marlin model 57 was the first of a family of short throw lever action rifles with steel reciever and 1 piece walnut stocks. I have had a couple in .22 mag and .256 win and loved them. They were/are still great rifles that hold their own against any of the other rifles within their class. I really liked the ultra short throw on lever and the stock. The only weak area is firing pin is easily broke. Do NOT dry fire it! This family of rifles is perhaps 1 of the most overlooked "sleepers" I can think of.

Never dry fire a rimfire. The FP will strike the edge of the chamber mouth and bad things will happen. The FP will get broken or peened. The chamber will develop a burr that will interfere with chambering.

Pre 1968 firearms were not required to have serial numbers. Don's freak out if you cannot find one.

Blonde- the Levermatic was not made for that many years, and gunpartscorp is sold out of the inner mag tube assemblies for these- HOWEVER- go find yerself a real gunsmith. They DO sell the brass tubes, springs, followers, cap and cap pins for these- any smith worth his salt can make you one that will function.

When I got it, this carbine had been pretty badly dogged out, finish was half-gone, it was covered in a light rust....just awful condition.
A few hours of cleaning and it started to look good again...repainted the reciever with Krylon Flat Black...refinished the stock,
which turned out to be a decent piece of wood! Found the scope for $10 at a pawn shop...
The whole project took about 2 weeks of fiddlin with it after work.

One of these days I'll track down a 57M...its been on my list for a few years...